Negative Thinking 1

From NHS Fife Department of Psychology article

We have all had them. However we are not born with them. We created them (via training and external influences and experiences) so we can have the power to change them, right?

Negative Thinking

Negative thoughts are associated with negative feelings such as sadness, anxiety, anger, and hopelessness. Often we believe we are not aware of our negative thoughts as they occur automatically, seem reasonable and believable.

The worse we feel, the more likely we are to think negatively and believe these thoughts to be true, even though they are unreasonable and unrealistic. Negative thoughts are experienced by all of us at some time but are more prevalent and extreme whenever we feel stressed, anxious, irritable or depressed.

They become our habit thoughts.

 Thought Traps

There are different types of common negative thought patterns known as Thought Traps that occur whenever we thinking negatively. The type of thought traps may vary depending on our mood and the particular situation that we are in at any given time. Some example are given below. Learning to recognise these thought traps is the first step in overcoming them.

Mind reading: Believing that you know what another is thinking.

Example: “He thinks I’m a loser.”

Labelling: Calling yourself or others names in an unduly negative way. Example: “I’m a failure,” “He’s an idiot,” “I’m useless”.

Fortune telling: Making negative predictions about the future

Example: “I’ll get rejected,” “I’ll make a fool of myself.”

Catastrophising: Predicting the absolute worst case scenario, ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’.

Example: A loved one is home late from work, imagining there has been a terrible accident and they have been taken to hospital, or worse – they have died.

Overgeneralising: if something didn’t work out once, assuming it never will.

Example: If you have been working hard one day but don’t quite finish everything, you may think “I’ve got nothing done” and this deprives you from a sense of achievement for what you have done.

All-or-Nothing Thinking: seeing things as being either, or.

Example: black or white with no shades of grey, success or failure, good or bad.

Ignoring the Positives: focusing on the negative in a situation rather than seeing the whole picture.

Example: You have done well in a task at work, but you keep focusing on earlier mistakes. You have good friends that have known you for years but you focus on the friendships that didn’t work out.

Emotional Reasoning: using your emotions or mood as a means of interpreting what is happening around you

Example: I feel uptight so something dreadful is about to happen

Personalising: taking things personally, assuming responsibility

Example: My neighbour did not speak to me this morning, therefore I must have done something to upset them; or my boss is irritable today so I must have annoyed her.

Shoulds and Musts: assuming that things have to be a certain way.That we have to abide by certain rules

Example: I should always give everything I do 100%, I must not fail, or I must not be rude so other should not be either.

If you need help getting your negative thoughts back in check then lets have a chat!